Wireless communication systems are widely known in which base stations (or access points) communicate wirelessly with terminals (also called user equipments, mobile stations or subscriber stations) within range of the base stations. The geographical area covered by a base station is generally referred to as a cell, and typically many base stations are provided in appropriate locations so as to cover a wider geographical area more or less seamlessly with adjacent and/or overlapping cells. The size of a cell can be influenced by a number of factors including transmission power, pathloss, interference, and the like. A terminal may be in range of (i.e. be able to directly communicate with) several base stations at the same time, but in the simplest case the terminal communicates with one ‘serving’ base station.
Although a great deal of effort is focused on coverage planning for wireless communication systems in order to achieve optimal placement of the base stations, there is a need for improved techniques for managing coverage provided by existing base stations of wireless communication systems.